"Come to church, share your gifts, join a choir and raise your voice in prayer and praise."

The curriculum we use in training our young singers in the Christ Church Choristers is called Voice for Life, and was developed over many years by the famous Royal School of Church Music in England. VFL, as it is known, is a practical, goal-oriented curriculum that covers “basic training” in five “modules:” 

Using the Voice Well,
Musical Skills and Understanding,
Repertoire,
Belonging to the Choir, and
Choir in Context

Blending practical instruction in the techniques of singing with social and spiritual skill-building exercises, in the context of a regular pattern of rehearsal and worship, is at the core of the VFL curriculum. As children advance through the ranks of Novice, Junior and Senior Chorister, they keep track of their individual progress in each module through the use of training cards and an award medal system. Choristers learn about music theory (note-names, common musical terminology, etc.) music-reading, singing techniques, the role of choirs in church, and gain invaluable insights into understanding the liturgy, the Prayer Book and Hymnal, and how to work together effectively to achieve artistic goals and enrich the musical life of a parish. 

I strongly believe in participation in choirs or other musical ensembles of a church as a visible, vital and practical way of “giving voice” to our faith life. Through our own voices, spoken and sung, we give of our selves, “our souls and bodies,” to be a “reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice” of praise. To describe the role of choirs in the life and worship of the church, I use the term “sacramental” very intentionally. The church’s definition of a sacrament is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace,” and that is exactly what singing in choirs is! The physical act of singing is the outward and visible sign of our desire to praise and pray through music, and it is informed and “sanctified” by that inward and spiritual grace that makes us want to sing in the first place! Through singing we engage our minds, souls and bodies in a life-renewing and life-fulfilling cycle of prayer and praise in which the physical (and psychological) act of singing informs faith, and faith in turn informs and ennobles our singing! .

Come to church, share your gifts, join a choir and raise your voice in prayer and praise. Your Voice for Life, your sacramental offering of mind, heart, soul and body, musically or in other ways, is what God calls forth from us, and what we return to him in thanksgiving and adoration. There is no more beautiful sound than this!

John Brooks